4 Islands You Wouldn't Want to Visit

We tend to concentrate on places that sound fantastic to visit, but there are a few islands that don't sound great for romantic getaways. Here are four islands you wouldn't want to visit:

Poveglia Island

Located between Venice and Lido in Italy, Poveglia island has a dark and gruesome history. It was traditionally the place where plague sufferers were exiled (and sometimes murdered), and in the 20th century was reportedly used as a mental asylum. Rumours and myth are hard to distinguish, but no one seems to want to live there and it is still uninhabited today.

Ilha de Queimada Grande

While tropical islands come at a premium and developers fight over building rights for luxury resorts, no one is fighting over the lovely Ilha de Queimada Grande in Brazil, or even trying to go. That's because there's an estimated 4-5 snakes per square metre there. And we're not talking harmless garden snakes, but huge poisonous golden lanceheads.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Not so much an island as a nightmare, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex) is a mass the size of Texas floating somewhere in the central Pacific Ocean. It is made up entirely of trash brought to a specific point by ocean currents. Heart-breaking images have surfaced of turtles, birds and fish who have died from ingesting the plastic debris.

Izu Islands

Residents of several islands in the Izu archipelago of Japan are required to carry gas masks with them wherever they go. Why? The ever-present volcanic emissions, which give the island the pervading stench of rotten eggs.

The Highs and Lows of Marijuana in Amsterdam

Want the low-down on drugs in Amsterdam? We've got it.

In what can only be described as a major buzzkill, Dutch lawmakers have introduced a plan to bar foreigners from the famous (or infamous) Amsterdam ‘coffee shops’ where marijuana is openly sold.

At present, the coffee shops are allowed to sell up to 5 grams of marijuana to people over the age of 18. It is still technically illegal to possess marijuana, but the punishment for holding up to 30 grams is usually fairly light. Smoking in public is generally tolerated, but most visitors still prefer to smoke within the coffee shops. What isn’t tolerated is the use of hard drugs like cocaine or ecstacy.

Cannabis has been a major tourist draw for Amsterdam for years, with foreigners flocking in for wild weekends and pot pilgrimages. A number of tour companies even offer holiday packages that include visits to coffee shops and tours of the Red Light District. While officials have no plan to shut the venues down, their proposal would ban them from serving foreigners. There are reports that the city has started to close several coffee shops in the Red Light District, however.

Locals who make their living from selling weed to tourists are understandably upset by the proposed regulations. Pot is big business in the Netherlands, with an estimated 40,000 marijuana farms in the country. Today also marks the final day of the Amsterdam Cannabis Cup, putting all the newest and best innovations in the cannabis industry on show.